20 million illegals in US, say former border patrol officers

The number of undocumented immigrants residing in the United States is likely as high as 20 million, according to the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO).

In an open letter to Congress Monday, NAFBPO chairman Zach Taylor wrote that the current estimate of 11 million undocumented immigrants is a “gross underestimate,” pinning the number at between 18 to 20 million and “rising daily.”

“Empirical data collected during processing of 2.7 million persons during the last amnesty established that for every alien estimated to be eligible for amnesty three will actually benefit,” Taylor wrote going on to add that even 26 years after the first amnesty immigration laws are still not being aggressively enforced and that “the promise to the American public in 1986 was a lie.”

NAFBPO has been vocally opposed to the Senate immigration bill arguing that the “America’s Immigration laws are not broken” instead Congress has allowed current immigration law to “ignored and/or abused for political expediency.”

The Department of Homeland Security has most recently estimated that 11.5 million undocumented immigrants were living in the United States in January 2011. The Pew Hispanic Center has estimated that in March 2011, 11.1 million undocumented immigrants resided in the United States. According to Pew, the number of undocumented immigrants peaked in 2007 at 12 million.

“To even contemplate another amnesty without verification of this basic information is malfeasance in governance and fraud on its face.” Taylor wrote.

“Repeating amnesty using these erroneous calculations again in 2013 presents the real prospect that the United States will immediately be burdened with 30 – 33 million new residents of unknown origin or criminal background,” he added. “That number will then be followed during the next ten years as at least an additional 33,056,946 new immigrants are added to America’s population as a result of passage of S.744.”